I’ve done it. My first achieved platinum trophy. This trophy is only rewarded by completing every achievement the game provides.

Anybody playing on Playstation network or XBOX Live knows that this is something quite demanding.

I decided that this will be the end of my gaming career. Well, not entirely, as I cannot deny the pleasure of casual gaming, but recently I just wasted to much precious time playing games such as GTA 4, Midgnight Club LA, Resident Evil 4/5, Dead Space, you name it. So I decided to put an end to endless weekend sessions of grinding.

Gaming has been an important part of my life, going back in time as far as 1982 playing River Raid (the first videogame ever to be put on the “Index” – meaning banned in Germany! *lol*) and Sea Quest on the Atari 2600. I can’t deny that I wasted a lot of time in front of systems such as the Commodore Amiga, Nintendo GameBoy (the grey one!), Super Nintendo/Famicon, Playstation 1 2 3 and the PC. Thank god it was just a lot of time, never an addiction (although the platinum trophy hunt came pretty close!).

Playing inFamous never felt like playing a great game. I just played forever, one more mission, one more achievement, end credits. Let’s play it again in hard mode as the villain. Beat it again, almost threw my controller into my telly fighting Kessler in hard mode, decided to do the rest of the achievements. In the end I think inFamous is a great game, I just can’t be bothered any more. I decided to spend my future spare time with things more rewarding, family, guitar or maybe even working overtime ;). There is so much more to do than spending half the weekend in front of my PS3. Guess I had to have it all just to come back to the roots and enjoy the simple things again.

Let’s see whether this will work out – I already pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption. Again, the exception proofs the rule, right?

7.5 / 10 – a great game that didn’t really worked out for me – or did it?

Blogging about quitting is nice, but the real world is different. I struggled for 5 months – no smoke at all, but after one and yet another one I am an addict again. This sucks (literally), but I couldn’t see my tag cloud any more without posting this “confession”. I feel a bit sorry for myself, but I was constantly thinking about it, and in the end started again, because not smoking became a pain as well (thought about it almost every day). I guess I’ll have to wait for the time I just really want to quit, not just prove something to me.

To cut a long story short: A friend of mine and myself went for a drink on Friday, we got pissed pretty hard and at some point I smoked a cigarette. I can only remember that I managed to inhale three times, the rest of the fag just died away chatting. I didn’t like it, and I did not start smoking again, but I promised him to blog about it. Well, yeah, blog about my epic fail!

Guess the 8bit NSDs are another 254 days away… bugger! At least I can be pretty sure not to fall into relapse completely due to the fact that smoking gave me nothing desirable any more. It seems like this was just a glitch…

One wouldn’t hurt, right? Once, sometimes twice a day I still get the itch to smoke. But so far nothing seemed worth giving up my 127 days of absence. I am pretty sure that I’ll make it to the next bit as well.

On the other hand I feel good being a non-smoker. If I just could be strong enough to have a fag every now and then … but I guess we have been through this before! Ahhhh!

For no reason I am really struggling tonight. I WANT TO SMOKE… g, this puts me in a bad temper… but I won’t be subdued. Still, it sucks to not do something you really want – even if you are an adult (as in “I am an adult, therefore I drink Coke late at night”)

Just wanted to make sure, that even I didn’t write about my absence any more I am still smoke free. It’s okay and not very hard to stay away any more, even though every now and than I get an itch for a smoke, but that’s so minor and controllable it’s nothing really to mention. Seems I am pretty much over it.

There are two kinds of drugs. One kind makes you feel bad if you take it, the other kind makes you feel bad if you don’t take it. It doesn’t really depend on the drug, just whether it’s a habit (addiction) or some random fooling around. Please be aware that both kinds make you feel bad.

As a habit, a drug doesn’t affect a regular user. If you stop taking it, you feel bad. (My case considering nicotine)
As an occasionally user you are affected. If you stop taking it, you feel good again. (My case considering alcohol)

Bottom line: Wow, that’s news! Sometimes you have to remind yourself of obvious things. Basically it is nonsense to do drugs to feel normal (which is an addiction). Another reason for me to quit smoking. If you do a drug every now an then, that may be okay. This is not to be mistaken as a general rule. And should not be applied to drugs you ever were addicted to. Having a fag after a few weeks of abstinence might bring you back from where you started. Ughh!